<小特集 南アジア・イスラーム文献の出版・伝播2>アキール文庫カシミール関連コレクション［A309］<小特集 南アジア・イスラーム文献の出版・伝播2>アキール文庫カシミール関連コレクション［A309］AA12218121<Special Feature "Publication and Distribution of Islamic Books in South Asia 2">Publications Related to Kashmir in the Aqeel Collection: an Overview

The Aqeel Collection of Kyoto University includes a series of books related to the history of Kashmir and Kashmir issues, published in both India and Pakistan. Kashmir, the highland hemmed in by the high mountains of the Himalayas on the North-Western frontier of South Asia, has been the subject of a territorial conflict between India and Pakistan since the independences of the two countries in 1947, including three Indo-Pakistani wars in 1949, 1965, and 1971. Besides the process of the conflict itself and atempts at solving problems peacefully by India and Pakistan, an academic subject can be made on the interest of the citizens of both countries in Kashmir. The Aqeel collection shows us some of the aspects of Pakistani Muslim intellectuals’ interests in the area. The fact that Dr. Aqeel’s collection has some rare and important editions and Urdu translations of the primary sources on the pre-modern history of Kashmir indicates how the publishing industry in Pakistan has vigorously published books related to the subject, and also Dr. Aqeel’s deep interest in it. It should be stressed that, contrastingly, his collection has no books related to the notion of so-called “Kashmiriyat (secular syncretism of Kashmiri tradition or ethnic subnationalism of Kashmiri Muslims)”, chiefly claimed by Muslim intellectuals and independence campaigners in Indian Kashmir. Since the mid-1970s, the Cultural Academy and some Muslim intellectuals in Indian Kashmir have emphasized the role of two Kashmiri ascetic poets, Lallā and Nūr al-Dīn in the cultural history of Kashmir, and claimed to find “secularism” in their poems. However, such a notion has not been shared with Pakistani Muslims. The absence of books on “Kashmiriyat” in Dr. Aqeel’s collection presumably reflects the difference between the image of the cultural and religious identity of Kashmir held by Muslims in Indian Kashmir and that held by Pakistani Muslims.